It's the Story of a Girl
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1261b through 1281b (alternating): It began with a mystery for Finn and Kurt and led to an injury in the auditorium, but in between there was a secret. - Sylvesters series
1. How Did We Get Here

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 60th cycle. Now cycle 61!_

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_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"It's the Story of a Girl"  
Sue & Brittany, Finn, Kurt, Carole & Burt, Santana & Quinn, New Directions, Will  
Sylvesters series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_**

**1. How Did We Get Here?**

Quinn's sneakers squeaked as she made her dash around the corner, and she wasn't entirely sure but she thought she might have shoved someone by accident, but that was the last thing on her mind. Right now the only thing that mattered to her was to find her coach.

There were exactly two of them in this building who would know to go to her right now, and the other was busy, so she had to hurry. She understood about the secret, but in this case there were some secrets worth breaking.

The door to her office was open, and she caught on to the frame to swing right into the room. "Coach, you need to come with me, right now."

"What the hell are y…"

"It's Brittany, she's hurt."

X

_One week earlier_

The new school year had barely started, but it was like no time had passed. One minute it had been her junior year, the next she was a senior, slipping on her Cheerios uniform, lacing up her shoes, tying up her ponytail, going in for one last year through the halls of McKinley High… provided everything went alright, which she still had no idea about.

But that was alright, and she wouldn't worry herself over what she didn't know. She would get to return to her friends, to cheerleading and Glee Club, and that was definitely a reason for her to smile. The question remained whether she would get to keep that smile.

She knew her mother's issues with the Glee Club, and there had been a lot of ups and down between them about that. Things had been good between them for the last little while. She wasn't sure what this year was going to look like for them, but she hoped it continued to be good. She didn't like being torn in between both of her worlds.

"So what do we do after this year?" she asked as she sat to breakfast with her mother.

"After this year?" Sue repeated, not grasping.

"Well, after I'm out of school. Do we still keep things like… this?"

"You mean, with this secret," Sue's posture shifted, and Brittany immediately felt like she shouldn't have brought it up.

"I should go, Santana's picking me up two blocks from here and if I'm in a hurry I'll take a wrong turn and get lost," she got up, taking her bag.

"Brittany, wait," Sue reached for her arm, looking up at her. They were silent for a beat before she let out a breath. "We can talk about it later, okay?"

"Okay," Brittany agreed, giving her a smile before scurrying off.

X

At McKinley that day, one of the teachers had been stuck bringing their child along. All day long, they would see Mrs. Meyers go down the halls with her daughter, who couldn't have been more than four or five years old. A lot of them would watch her go by, right on her mother's heels. Some would stop and try to talk to her. The girl was shy, staying silent, but she would at least look up when people talked to her. Other teachers had a better shot at it, getting a hello out of her. Emma had gotten a hello and a compliment on her hair, as the pair of them matched in color. But the one encounter that had brought the hallways to a grinding halt was when Mrs. Meyers' daughter had trailed off and ended up coming across Coach Sylvester.

It was like watching a tiny mouse go up to a roaring lion. There was no chance this could end without that poor child breaking into tears, and everyone watched, trying not to look like they were waiting to see what would happen.

Sue had stopped just shy of tripping over the girl, and she looked down to find brown eyes and a pair of ginger braids. "Almost didn't see you there," Sue pointed down to the girl. She kept staring up without a word. "What's your name?"

"Anna," the girl spoke, blinking at the tall woman before her.

"Aren't you a little young for this school?" Sue asked, leaning forward to save the girl from craning her neck so far out.

"It's my mommy's school," she pointed back to her mother, who was watching the exchange as much as the others.

"Right, I know her," Sue nodded. "I'm guessing that hair came from your dad, red like yours, right?" Anna grinned. "Tell you what, if your mom says it's alright, maybe you could come and see my Cheerios practice. Would you like that?"

"Cheerios?"

"Not the cereal," Sue assured her. "Cheerleaders," she explained. "Can't imagine you've been having too much fun sitting around all day with your mom, have you? So how about it, dancing people or sleeping people?" Anna laughed, turning to her mother. She didn't even need to ask.

"If it's not too much trouble. Most of my students have been taking this as an opening to be even more obvious about not paying attention," Mrs. Meyers let out a breath.

"Alright, then, Anna, off we go," Sue offered her hand and Anna took it. Their march down the hall was followed by every last pair of eyes. "What are you looking at?" she snapped at a cluster of girls. "Get to class, you might learn something." The girls ran off, as did the majority of students standing about.

Finn had been one of those who had witnessed the scene, and so had Kurt. The stepbrothers had turned to one another, both of them stunned by what they had seen and left intrigued. And that was before they had shared the story with their parents.

TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)


	2. It Started With a Mystery

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**2. It Started With a Mystery**

By the time they had made it home and sat to dinner with their parents, neither Finn nor Kurt had managed to put aside what they had seen earlier in the hall. The chatter had followed them into the dining room, to Burt and Carole's ears.

"What's going on?" Carole asked. The boys looked to one another, debating whether or not to bring it up.

"Well, it's… Coach Sylvester," Finn started.

"What'd she do this time?" Burt chuckled.

"Nothing, not like that," Kurt explained. "But it was odd."

"One of the teachers, she had to bring her daughter in to school with her, five years old," Finn took over.

"What does it have to do with the coach?" Carole asked.

"She was… nice to her," Finn answered. "Like really nice. She had her laughing and everything."

"Everyone in the hall was looking at her like she was going to make her cry," Kurt chuckled, pulling it back when he saw the look his father gave him.

"I still don't see how this is odd," Carole frowned.

"She walks around the school shoving people and doing everything in her power to mess up Glee Club for us, that's like… the definition of odd," Finn told his mother.

"I'm not saying that it's right for someone in her position to do what she does with you guys, but she's a mother, it's not that unusual for her to…"

"A what?" Kurt nearly choked on a bite.

"No she's not," Finn said at the same time.

"She's got a daughter," Carole insisted. "I haven't seen her in years, but I definitely remember Sue Sylvester going around with that little girl."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," Burt piped in. "Little blonde, just like her. Yeah, I'd see them at the mall sometimes, at the shop… She'd be about your age now," he nodded.

"No, you're remembering it wrong," Kurt told him. "She's told us, more than once, she doesn't have kids."

"Trust me on this, Kurt," Carole replied. "She's got a daughter."

They had let go of the subject after that, but later as he was getting ready for bed, Kurt was visited by his stepbrother. From the look on his face, he could see what Finn wanted to talk about.

"What if they're right?" Finn asked.

"About what? Sue Sylvester having a kid? I'd find that hard to believe," Kurt shook his head.

"But they both remember it, that can't be a coincidence," Finn sat down at Kurt's desk chair.

"Then what does it mean?" he shrugged. The idea popped into his head, and his face fell. "What?"

"What if…" he shook his head. "What if something happened to her?" Kurt paused, coming closer.

"What do you mean, like…" he gestured to indicate 'dead,' and Finn shrugged a 'maybe.'

"Your dad and my mom both said they hadn't seen her in a while, and it'd make sense, wouldn't it? She doesn't want anyone knowing, so she tells people she doesn't have kids. It'd be horrible to lose a child, maybe that's why she's so mean to us, like… her daughter never got to have what we have, so…"

"So she treats us like crap?" Kurt filled in, but he stopped and considered what Finn had said. "What do you think happened to her?"

"No idea," he shook his head.

"It's not like she did something and buried her in the yard or anything," Kurt said this with a bit of a laugh, to make clear he was joking, and Finn took it as such, too. "But you never know, right?"

"Maybe we should find out," Finn tried out the idea, looking back to Kurt.

"Investigation. I'm intrigued," he admitted.

"Can we keep this between us though?"

"I won't make us wear uniforms, relax. But if we are going to do this, we definitely should keep it quiet. If the coach finds out, it'll be us who end up in her backyard."

"Right," Finn tried not to sound so freaked out.

"We're… just doing this to make sure there's not a killer on the loose in the school, yeah?" Kurt asked, hoping to come off innocently.

"Yeah, definitely," Finn responded in kind. Neither was going to say anything along the lines of 'I'm too curious not to find out now.' "So how do we do this?"

"First step would be to make sure we're not just completely making a bigger deal out of this than it is," Kurt guessed, letting out a sigh. "Tomorrow morning, we can hit the internet."

"That's fair," Finn agreed, standing up. "This could be fun, right? Couple of brothers, doing something together," he smiled, and Kurt nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure this is in all the bonding guides," he joked.

Finn had gone off back to his room after this, leaving the two of them to consider what they knew, what they wanted to know. It was too big of a revelation for them not to want to get to the bottom of it. For all they knew, it was all a big misunderstanding, and they all had it wrong, both of them, his father, Finn's mother… This was Sue Sylvester they were talking about, and he was doing his best to answer the question for himself, whether it was possible that this child existed, and where she might be. Had she died, was she sick, was there an accident, or had Sylvester really done something.

"Maybe she just doesn't go to McKinley," Kurt sighed to himself as he turned over in bed. If Sue Sylvester had a child at McKinley, there was no way they wouldn't know about it somehow.

TO BE CONTINUED (MONDAY)


	3. And There Was a Wish

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**3. And There Was a Wish**

When they had come in to class the first time that year, Santana had pulled her along to make sure they could get to sit at the same two-seat table. Brittany did not resist, didn't need or want to. She simply smiled about it, because that was exactly what she would have wanted deep down.

As they sat side by side though, there was still something sitting in between them, an invisible barrier made out of secrets and fears. Sometimes she wouldn't even realize her hand was trailing to her left, like it intended to find the other girl's fingers, until she'd accidentally brush against a book, or a pencil, or Santana herself would give a discreet cough, and then she would sit up straighter, bringing her hand back to hug the side of her notebook, like it would keep her from doing it again.

There were days, more and more of them and closer and closer together now, where she wished they could just tear down all those walls in between. She really cared for Santana, in ways she had never liked anyone else. Part of it was that she was her best friend, and she was aware of it. But there were other things that went far beyond the parameters of friendship, and even she could understand what it might mean. But she couldn't even do anything about it.

If she could have her deepest wish come true, it might not have seemed like much to others, but it would have meant the world to her. All she truly wanted was to be able to take Santana to her home with her, not her father's home – she had been there many times – but her mother's. She wanted to take her through the front door and not immediately go up and hide in her room, only to have her forced to climb down the side of the house. _'One of these days I am going to break a leg,'_ she would hear Santana say sometimes as she rushed to make her exit.

Brittany wanted to be able to take her home, to sit at the dinner table or on the couch, anything, and have her mother on one side, and Santana on the other, both of them knowing they were the most important women in her world.

But there was her mother on the one hand, with their secret. She had asked her about what would happen after high school, because she really did need to know. She knew the deeper reasons behind this secret of theirs, whether her mother thought she did or not, and being her mother's daughter, she did understand them to some degree. But there would have to come a time where she could own up to who she truly was. Some days it felt like she was supposed to be ashamed of where she came from, because why else would she have to hide? She was not ashamed. She loved her mother very much, and she knew her in ways no one else did. That did not seem fair. For all her failings, her mother was a much kinder person than they made her out to be. Her mother herself did nothing to discourage these assumptions about her, and Brittany was sure she had her reasons for it, but… Those were the reasons she could not understand.

Would she end up an adult, living out on her own, sneaking back to visit her mother? She loved her stepmother very much, but she was never going to be her mother, not like Sue Sylvester. Except most people assumed Charlotte Pierce was her mother. And being that she could not correct them without letting out this secret of theirs, every time someone assumed it, she had to let them. What would happen when her mother died? That particular scenario had become more and more of a presence in her thoughts these days, and she hated it so very much. Would she have to attend her own mother's funeral as a former Cheerio, manning the glitter cannon salute like she wasn't a daughter who'd lost a parent? She couldn't do that. But then what place did she have to demand they stop lying?

That was one wall, but behind it there was another, one she had to understand in other ways, and that was Santana. Whatever they had done and shared behind closed doors, that was one thing. But Santana was still not ready to let the world know, least of all McKinley High and the rest of their hometown. Brittany was ready to stand tall by her side, whenever she should give the word, but pushing her would get them nowhere.

Brittany could not tell her how she hated feeling like a secret, how it felt sometimes, between Santana and her mother, that no one was willing to tell anyone that they loved her. She was a secret daughter and a secret lover. Santana should have realized it, as she did know about who her mother was, and Brittany suspected she did know. But knowing about it did not change her circumstances. So all Brittany could do was be patient, and wait, and play the finger crawl across a desk. She wouldn't even have to tell everybody, if she could only take Santana home with her, to her mother. That could be enough to hold her, not to have to play run around with the two of them.

TO BE CONTINUED (WEDNESDAY)


	4. The Mystery Deepened

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**4. The Mystery Deepened**

At breakfast that morning, Kurt wasn't sure whether his conversation with Finn the previous night would be proven to have been nothing more than the two of them messing around, or whether he was actually serious and they would look into this whole 'heir of Sylvester' story. He was more surprised at the fact he would be the one to bring up the topic first, as they were on their way to school.

"We were at her sister's funeral a few months ago. If her daughter was alive, wouldn't she have been there? The only blonde girls our age there were Quinn and Brittany." Finn didn't reply right away, leaving Kurt to ponder his own idea, nodding along. "Unless they had some sort of falling out. Like maybe she lives with her father."

"I had this weird dream last night," Finn admitted. "I don't know, just the thought of her having a kid, it put all these ideas in my head."

"I've been trying not to have those ideas myself," Kurt reassured him.

"Thought it was bad enough to have to think about my parents and all that, but… Sylvester."

"Okay, so if we're going to do this, rule one: keep focus, and don't go… there," Kurt told him.

"Got it," Finn agreed.

"Rule two might be that we keep this to ourselves as much as possible." Finn had gotten a look at this. "What? What are you thinking?"

"What if we asked someone about it?"

"Which someone?" Kurt asked.

"Quinn? I figure if anyone we know might have any kind of idea, it'd be her, right? She's like the coach's second in command."

"Maybe, but if she knows anything, she probably won't say anything. Like she'll be sworn to secrecy, or she'll have had to sign release forms."

"We have to try though, don't we? What do we have to lose?"

"I can think of a thing or two," Kurt told himself. "If we're lucky, she'll call us idiots and forget about it."

"Yeah, that sounds right," Finn agreed.

"We could check around with the other schools around here. There aren't that many, and she'd have to go to a school according to where the coach lives."

"What about the other thing? The dead… thing."

"We can look through old newspapers on the computers at school," Kurt suggested. "It can't be that hard to track that kind of thing down, can it?"

"Unless she's buried it… like she buried her…" Finn's voice trailed off, and Kurt couldn't believe that had given him a chill.

"Let's try your Quinn idea first."

When they had arrived at McKinley, they went in search of the girl in question. They had seen her in the hall, but she wasn't alone, and they decided it was better to catch her when she wouldn't have to excuse herself from anyone in order to talk to them. This had put off their investigation through morning classes.

But then as they were coming into the cafeteria at lunch time, they had come together in time to spot the cheerleader was by herself, about to pick up a tray.

"Go, go, go," Finn told Kurt as they moved in.

"Quinn, hi, can we talk to you for a minute?" Kurt asked her. She looked up, surprised to find the both of them standing in her path.

"I'm about to get lunch…"

"It can wait, couple minutes?" Kurt insisted. She looked like she was weighing her options, and figuring out the easiest way for her to get to have her lunch in peace.

"Fine, two minutes," she agreed, and they ushered her out of the cafeteria. "Where are you taking me exactly?" They had ended up in a classroom, where Finn closed the door. "What are you…"

"We need to ask you something, and it's probably going to sound really strange, but you need to hear us out, alright?" he told her.

"Okay?" she smiled hesitantly.

"See last night, our parents said something that kind of…" he went on, but when he froze, Kurt took over.

"They seem to be under the impression that Coach Sylvester has a daughter somewhere."

When they had said those words, she'd had all of a second to keep her face from showing any sort of recognition as to the subject and instead give a chuckle.

"What? No she doesn't."

"That's what we said," Finn pointed.

"But then both my dad and his mom are convinced they used to see the two of them together around town," Kurt took over. "They said she'd be around our age, that she's blonde, like Coach Sylvester."

"I really don't see how that's possible, at least I've never heard of her if she even exists. Either way, it's none of our business. Now are you two done?"

She hadn't given them the chance to reply before she left the classroom; now she was the one who needed to be alone. She needed a moment to figure out what to do with what she had just heard.

Those two had no idea how close they had come to the truth. She could have told them so much more than they even realized. She could have told them that, yes, Coach Sylvester had a child. More than that, she could have told them they had known her for years. Except she couldn't tell them. Brittany had sworn her to secrecy a long time ago, and she wasn't about to breach that trust.

Except now there were those two, snooping and putting their noses where they shouldn't have been putting them. What if they dug too deep? _Don't go to Brittany, don't freak her out. And stay the hell away from the coach; she doesn't even know you know._

_Right then, door number three._

She took out her phone and typed in a quick message. _'Need to talk, right now. Don't tell Brittany, just come and meet me at my locker.'_ And she sent it to Santana.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	5. Just As One Wondered

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**5. Just as one wondered**

Sue tried not to think about it. For a while, for years, there was no need at all to even think about it. Brittany was still too young for it to even be an issue, so why should she have to worry herself? Except now she wasn't too young anymore, and it was coming up. Her daughter was a senior in high school and, if all went well, she would be graduating at the end of the year and heading off to live her life, away from home and away from her.

It might have made it sound as though she didn't want this for her, but really she did. She wanted her daughter to succeed in life, like any parent should. She remembered when Brittany was only a little girl, and she would come up to her mother, convinced that she had found her calling in life. No matter how crazy and impossible it might have seemed, she would humor her, and that would just be something they did for the days or weeks, however long it took, before she found herself a new calling and forgot the old one. With every change, Sue was there, changing along with her.

But those were children's games, nothing real, not like what was going to happen at the end of the year.

Even there, the question remained though: would she actually make it out of here this year? From what she knew of her daughter's grades, there was enough room for improvement to house a large family. She had done some things here and there to ensure Brittany's spot on the Cheerios, whether she would admit it or not, but that didn't mean it would be enough to carry her out of here. There was only so much she could do on that level when it came to college.

On this front, she was even willing to make a personal sacrifice, to truly and properly get her away from the Cheerios, not only to let her stand on her own merits, but also to give her more time to devote to those studies she needed to focus on. If that was going to be the case though, she would speak to Brittany directly this time. She had learned personally and with great difficulty what other methods could get her. This was her daughter's senior year, if all went according to plan, her final year at McKinley, so she might have wanted to stick with the Cheerios and ride them right out of high school, but Sue was going to voice her opinion, putting her foot down where it needed to go.

Brittany's impending graduation didn't concern her solely on an academic front though, and her question a couple of days prior had left Sue with some thinking to do, whether she liked it or not.

Of course she didn't want to spend the rest of her life pretending that her daughter wasn't her daughter. She had loved that girl from the moment she had known she was expecting her. She had seen her come to life, and from that day her life had been made better for having her. No matter how crazy things got out in the world, when she was at home with her little girl, there was very little that could keep her from feeling as happy as anyone could be. She had so many memories of her, memories she'd hardly ever been able to share. How many times she had seen parents at school, displaying their children's accomplishments, and that was never her. When she'd been little, she would put her on the school bus in the morning, while her grandfather picked her up in the afternoon. On the rare occasions where she needed to go to that school, she went, but she counted herself as not so memorable to any of them.

Either way, she had spent all these years with pride of her own, kept hidden for the sake of keeping her girl out of her grandmother's clutches. In hindsight it was all such a big complicated mess, but then she would remember how it had begun, and it didn't seem as though there was any other solution.

So what was going to happen now, with her daughter out of high school and into the world? She imagined it would be easier now, in some aspects, to go about and present herself as her mother, especially if she went to college outside of Ohio. As much as she had made a name for herself on various diverse platforms, she had enough of a private life to keep her worlds well isolated from one another. If she played her cards right she could present herself, her daughter's mother, without her own mother ever coming into the picture.

Even then though, it would be a lie, and she knew it. Deep down they would still be hiding. Maybe it was just time though. Maybe it was time to take their chances and let Brittany fly on her own. She was her own person now and, even if that person was very peculiar and sometimes a little too peculiar, Sue had seen for herself that she could surprise people. She could actually be ready to fend for herself, and Doris Sylvester wouldn't have a single hope of swaying her or changing her.

She didn't know what the future would bring for the both of them. All she knew was that, ever since she had lost her sister, Sue felt more and more like she needed to take the people she loved closer to her heart. Brittany was about as close to her heart as anyone could ever hope to be, but how much was that worth when no one could see it?

TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)


	6. They Were Getting Closer

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

* * *

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**6. They Were Getting Closer**

As soon as Santana had been within sight, Quinn had gestured with her head for the girl to follow, and they went into the girls' room. Once they had made sure there was no one around, Quinn let out a breath. "Why are we here exactly?" Santana asked. "Don't tell me you went and got yourself knock…"

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you," Quinn held up her hand. "This is serious." Santana frowned; now she was listening.

"How serious?"

"I know we've never talked about this, even though we both know the truth," Quinn started.

"The truth…" Santana stretched it out, unsure which 'truth' they were talking about.

"About Brittany, about… her mother," Quinn pressed on the word, keeping her voice down. "About who she really is." Santana looked around the empty bathroom, taking a step forward.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Finn and Kurt just pulled me into an empty room to ask me if Coach Sylvester had a daughter." Santana muttered something that may or may not have been in English. "I don't think they actually know anything, but if they keep digging, sooner or later…"

"Well what do they know?" Santana asked.

"Finn's mom and Kurt's dad both claimed they knew the coach had a blonde daughter our age, that was about it."

"At least the odds of them just happening on the truth are low."

"I don't think they're going to let it go. We know Brittany doesn't want it to get out, so…"

"Okay," Santana decided. "Let's go see what those two idiots are up to."

It didn't take long for them to locate the boys. They had gone right to the library, where they were now browsing on the school's computers. Quinn and Santana stood in the stacks, watching them.

"Can you see what they're looking at?" Quinn whispered, squinting.

"Looks like newspapers," Santana whispered back. "Pretty sure the coach is smarter than to let any of that get into print. Maybe we can lead them off the track."

"What, like a fake daughter?"

"Do we have time for that? Do you? Because I sure as hell don't. No, I mean we can convince them that they had it wrong, that the kid their parents saw wasn't her daughter."

"Right, that might work. A niece maybe? But that would make her Jean's daughter."

"They'd never fall for that," Santana shook her head.

"What if we say that the coach had another sibling, but they haven't been in touch for years. The girl could be her niece, that she hung out with, except now she's out of state," Quinn shrugged.

"And you just happened to remember this after you talked to them?" Santana asked.

"No, but that's where you come in. I'll say I told you about what they told me, and you were the one who knew the truth."

"Alright, that makes more sense," she agreed.

"Let's just get this over with, come on," Quinn grabbed her arm and pulled her along, letting go as they approached the boys from behind. "Hey, guys," she spoke, and both Finn and Kurt instantly reached to minimize their browser windows before turning around.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked. "I figured you'd have gone back to the cafeteria."

"I did. I ran into Santana there," she nodded to her.

"Yeah, and she told me all about this crazy idea of yours," Santana chuckled.

"Did she?" Finn sat up.

"It's not that crazy…" Kurt defended himself.

"Oh, it is," Santana nodded. "Besides, I can prove it. That kid your parents saw with the coach years ago, that was her niece," she crossed her arms before herself.

"Her niece?" Finn asked.

"We helped pack Jean's room after she died, there was nothing…" Kurt shook his head, thinking back.

"That's because she's not Jean's. Coach Sylvester has another sister," Santana told them.

"Since when?" Kurt asked.

"She moved out of Lima over a decade ago, I heard them talking on the phone once. From what I got, there was some bad blood between the two of them, so they've been out of touch. But she was really close with her niece, she would take her out all the time. So there. Mystery solved. How about you two go do something more important with your time like, I don't know, study," she turned this last suggestion Finn's way before turning on her heel.

"Sorry," Quinn shrugged and followed her. Once they were out of the library, they looked to each other. "Think that'll work?"

"It better. We should keep an eye on them for a bit though, just in case."

"Right, yeah," Quinn agreed. "You know, the crazy thing is for all we know she could have another sister out there, or a brother. What do we even know?"

"We know more than Finn and Kurt, so let's just keep it that way."

"Quinn, Santana, my office!" The call had caught them so by surprise they froze and turned, spotting the back of Coach Sylvester's head as she was going back into her office.

"You don't think…" Quinn breathed.

"No, we're good," Santana told her; her voice sounded less convinced. They moved to the coach's office, sitting before her desk. She was looking at her computer, like there could have been no one else in her office, and for a whole minute the girls could do nothing but wait and worry that they might have been heard. When Sue finally looked at them, they collectively sat up.

"I want you to keep an eye on the new recruits. Any of them shows signs that they've skated by and they're not Cheerios material at all, you let me know, so I can nip that right up. Got it?"

"Yes, Coach," they both replied.

"Go," she nodded to the door and they stood.

"Thanks, Coach," they left.

"And shut the do… Door." They were already gone, so she stood and moved around her desk to do it herself, but she was stopped by the phone's ring. She grabbed it and brought it to her ear. "Yes?"

TO BE CONTINUED (MONDAY)


	7. But Then News Arrived

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

* * *

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**7. But Then News Arrived**

Of all the emotions she had thought she would feel upon learning of Doris Sylvester's death, grief had somehow never entered her mind. For so long she had looked at her mother as being the cause of so much lack and misery in her life. She'd had to go so far as to create this entire double life, hiding her daughter's existence from the world on the chance that the woman might learn of her and do the same to her.

Now that she was gone, as the man on the phone had confirmed, it was the first time she ever asked herself if it was too harsh of a solution. It couldn't have been all bad, could it? There were moments in her childhood when she wasn't so miserable, she could remember those. But did she remember them so vividly because of how good they were, or because of the way they stood out in comparison to everything else? She had seen her mother once, the year before, and she only remembered that when she was gone she felt like she had done right by keeping Brittany from her.

If anything, the one who had suffered in not knowing was Doris. She had missed out on knowing she ever had a granddaughter, and how wonderful of a girl she was. She would never get the chance to know, to turn things around, and maybe that was where the grief had found the way to snake its way into her heart.

She would have loved the thought of three generations of Sylvester women together. Her mother had accomplished some great things in her life, that was not even debatable. She had her accomplishments, yes. But at what cost? Even after all these years, that was how she would see it. She would say 'my mother did this thing, but…' or 'my mother made sure that that thing happened, but…' It was always there, the clause that parted the value she could ever put into what Doris had done. She could not see the act without the cost. She herself had been guilty of it, with some of the things she did, she knew. What her daughter must think of her sometimes…

She didn't want that to be their legacy, her and Brittany. She didn't want her daughter to grow up, have a child of her own, and to feel that she needed to keep that child from her. Their relationship was by no means anything like the relationship she had with her own mother, she didn't think. She never had to doubt the fact that her daughter loved her, no matter how much she had put her through, with this secret. She had never shied from it, even though it must have caused her some pain along the way. It had been painful for both of them.

_But it could all be ended now, couldn't it? Doris Sylvester was the cause. And Doris Sylvester was dead._

The realization hit her, and she honestly did not know what to do with it. The answer should have been simple. They had perpetuated this secret because of her mother, and now her presence was no longer hanging over their heads. There was no more reason for her to hide the fact that Brittany Susan Pierce had been born Brittany Jean Sylvester. It should have been that simple, but it wasn't.

All these years, they had lived this lie, and it had settled and shaped itself around their lives so much that they couldn't ignore it. How were they supposed to suddenly tell the world, the one they lived in at least, that all of it had been a lie? It would have been one thing if they had only sidestepped the truth all this time, but they hadn't. They had both lied right to people's faces. Actually, she had lied and she had made Brittany do the same, there was a difference, although whether people would be willing to accept that difference was left to be seen.

If they wanted to hate her for it, to call her whatever name they wanted to, they could go ahead. She could dish it out far better than they could, and she wouldn't let herself get insulted by people who had no idea what her life was. They could come at her, and she would deal with it. But then there was Brittany.

They were already taking shots at her, about her grades, and her reputation, which she tried to ignore, exacting her revenge wherever she could. But then what would happen when they found out she was the daughter of none other than Sue Sylvester. She wasn't so deluded as to think that this wouldn't be welcomed with its fair share of ridicule. Add to this the fact that it had been kept quiet all this time, and they could make her life a living hell. And Sue couldn't protect her from all of that.

Beyond what her friends might think, she had never considered the other kinds of ramifications. What if this got high enough up the food chain, and they somehow tried to keep her from seeing her daughter? She was still a minor, they could do it, could send her to live with Joe permanently and prevent her from seeing her, either make her transfer schools or get Sue fired… There was no chance she would ever let that happen.

So then what were they supposed to do? Brittany didn't want to lie anymore. She didn't want to do it either. And now that her mother was dead, they didn't have to… but it didn't mean they should just leap out of the parental closet, with all the bells and whistles. For now, she would have to keep a lid on this, until she could figure out what would be best, for both of them.

TO BE CONTINUED (WEDNESDAY)


	8. And Though They Knew Nothing

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

* * *

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**8. And Though They Knew Nothing**

Finn had been walking out of class, frowning at the corrections peppered over his graded test like red insects, when Kurt came up to him.

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?" Finn replied, only half listening.

"Coach Sylvester cancelled Cheerios practice for today."

"Oh, okay," Finn went on, and Kurt tapped his arm, which finally got him to look up. "Sorry, I wasn't really…"

"Coach Sylvester cancelled today's Cheerios practice," Kurt obliged and repeated.

"She did?" Finn paused, puzzled.

"She never cancels," Kurt shook his head. "When I was on the squad, she had the flu, and she still came, barked and coughed in that megaphone. It was traumatizing. Plus half of us were out sick after her, bunch of them were thrown out. But she still didn't miss one practice."

"Okay, but how does that…" Finn didn't see why it would be so important.

"I've been thinking, about what Quinn and Santana said. What if Sylvester lied to them?"

"Kurt, come on, let it go. It's over now," Finn insisted.

"What if it's not though? Sylvester is smart, she would cover her tracks. What's better than to have a ready-made witness, with an alibi to throw the scent off her?" Finn considered this, and he couldn't ignore that it could make sense.

"So… What do we do?"

"Either we prove that it's like they said and it's her niece, or we prove it's not, which means the daughter hypothesis is back on the table and we keep digging. What do you think?" Finn couldn't deny it was fun, to have this with him.

"Well… She's not in her office now…" he slowly pointed out, and Kurt caught on to the suggestions.

"No, she's not. And she's not in the school at all. It might be our best opportunity," he continued the thought. "We could find what we need… We could also get caught."

"If we go down, we go down together," Finn offered his fist. Kurt hesitated before finally bumping it.

"Let's go."

They had made a cautious approach toward the office, entirely aware of the consequences they would face if they were caught in the act of…

"Wait, someone's coming," Kurt had stopped suddenly.

"It's just Brittany," Finn said as they watched the blonde go up to the office door.

"Doesn't matter. Fall back," they ran off.

x

She had no idea why her mother had cancelled practice. The notice had been on the gym door and that was it. She went to the office then, hoping to find her there. But the door was locked. She had the key, so she used it, hoping there might be some kind of clue, a message of some sort.

She went in and closed the door, turning to the desk. Everything looked in order, nothing that jumped out as being different. A light flashed on the phone – maybe that was it? She pressed a key and after a beep there was a man's voice.

"_Miss Sylvester, Steven Chambers again. I have a few more questions regarding your mother's funeral service. If you can call me back…"_

She sat down on one of the chairs across the desk, staring at the phone in shock. Her grandmother had died. No wonder her mother had cancelled practice. She hadn't been able to tell her because… because… Why hadn't she told her about it at all?

She needed to get to her mother, needed to be with her. Nothing else mattered when someone she loved needed her.

She arrived home and found her mother wasn't there. But she hadn't been at school either, so where was she? She didn't have an appointment anywhere or she would have told her. She called her phone and got her voicemail. Did she need to be alone?

After she'd gotten lost once, her mother told her to just wait where she was until she could be found again. She wasn't lost, but she figured it was best to follow that same policy here. She was going to sit and wait for her mother.

It was nearly seven o'clock by the time she arrived, lugging four loaded shopping bags into the kitchen. Her face didn't look at all like someone who had found out her mother had died. She knew her mother and grandmother had their issues, obviously, but it would affect her either way.

"Where'd you go? You cancelled practice…"

"I figured it was about time I threw you guys a bone, no? And I got all this shopping done…"

"That's all?" Brittany asked, confused.

"That's all," Sue replied with a nod. Brittany looked at her.

"Oh… Right. Okay."

"Did you have dinner?"

"Yeah, I made a sandwich. I have to finish my homework."

Brittany went up to her room, shutting the door. Nothing about this made sense. Her mother knew about her grandmother's death, that much was clear. But she was acting like nothing had happened, she wasn't telling her about it, like she didn't want her to know, like she was going to keep it secret.

Why? Why would she do that? They could stop this now, they could stop lying and have a normal life. But if she didn't know, then it was like it didn't happen. If it didn't happen, then they would continue like they had always done.

And it made her feel something like she was being deceived. She didn't know how to respond to it, but she knew she didn't like how it made her feel. She wanted anything but this.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	9. She Knew Too Much

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

* * *

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**9. She Knew Too Much**

The first moment she really spent being aware of what she was doing was as she sat in Glee Club. The rest of the day, she'd been lost in her own head.

Her mother had not told her a thing about her grandmother yet. She still went about like this was any other day. For a moment, she had started asking herself if she'd made a mistake, if she'd heard it wrong on the phone. But there was no way, she had definitely heard it right, and everything else she knew told her that she had it right. So why had she not said anything?

She could have brought it up by herself, put her mother against her lie, force her to explain it, but she couldn't do it, not like this, not to her, no matter what… no matter how upset it made her.

And now here she was, going from one class to the other, staring up at the board because it would make it look like she was paying attention. But she could have been staring at a brick wall and it would have done the same thing. Somewhere in her heart she just felt like crying. She was tired, not physically, just… tired… of all of it, with her and her mother and not knowing if she was the one keeping secrets or having secrets kept from her anymore.

"Hey, you alright?" She blinked, looking up. Santana had just come to sit next to her, and she didn't know what to tell her. "You feeling sick?" Santana asked, reaching to feel her forehead.

"I'm fine," Brittany sat up.

She wasn't going to do this, she decided. She wasn't going to spend another hour and some, sitting like a zombie because of her mother. She was going to give her absolute all and she would focus on Glee Club. Maybe then she wouldn't have to think about all this secret business, if only for a little while.

If she was looking to be distracted, then Mr. Schuester's assignment of the week was sure to fill her needs. After quickly establishing that keeping their practice in the choir room would not suffice, the club had relocated over to the auditorium. The song and the potential concept had been presented to them, and it had all the markings of being a showstopper, something that would get people's attention. He had called Brittany and Mike up to assist in choreography, and she was all in. Dance was a part of who she was, it was something about herself that she didn't have to lie about. She could be exactly who she was, without lying, and on this day of all days, she wanted nothing more than to dedicate herself to it.

Later on, some might have said that she was a little too dedicated to it on this day, but as she was in the moment itself, she couldn't see or hear anything else. All she wanted was to be herself, be Brittany and be a dancer. This number was going to be the best thing they'd ever done if she had any say in it, and she was nothing if not vocal about it, guiding the others through the routine. There was some resistance along the way, and some who quickly grew hesitant to even participate, but finally they were all ready for a run through the number.

They were about halfway through when it happened. One moment everything was fine, and they were hitting their marks. Some of their 'lesser dancers' were putting in nothing short of their best, and Brittany was just thinking it was too bad this wasn't their Sectionals, Regionals, or Nationals performance, because they would have killed it.

She wouldn't even remember how it came to be, if she tripped on someone, if there was a missed turn, or if it was all her own error. The only thing she would remember was suddenly rolling on the ground, catching the edge of the stage and falling below. Then everything had gone dark.

It was like a needle scratch on a record. The band stopped, the singing and the dancing stopped, and for a moment none of them knew how to breathe or move. Santana was the first to snap out of it and get moving. She ran to the edge of the stage and looked down, her strangled cry masked by her jumping off to crouch by the blonde's side, while the others rushed up. A few more leapt down, including Will, while the others could do nothing more than stand there, looking on to their unconscious friend.

"Don't move her," Artie was the one to point it out. "I think she may have hit something on the way down, she could be really hurt."

"Is she breathing?" Mike asked.

"I-I don't know…" Santana had no means to reply, too shaken up at the sight of her there. She had definitely hurt herself going off the stage; there was blood on the side of her head. Will reached for her wrist, feeling for a pulse before holding his hand in front of her mouth.

"She's just unconscious," he tried to reassure the Cheerio. "But we should call for an ambulance," he turned to the other kids.

"I'm on it," Kurt pulled out his phone and dialled 911.

"What about her parents?" Mercedes asked.

Santana's eyes turned up, seeking Quinn out, and when their gazes locked, she knew she'd been thinking the same thing when Mercedes brought up parents. _As a matter of fact, one of them is right here in this building._ The decision had to be quick. As much as they tried to understand this whole thing they had going on, they knew full well that something like this had to warrant an exception. They had to let the coach in on what was happening.

"I'll take care of it," Quinn went to move off the stage and up out of the auditorium.

"Where is she going?" Finn asked, looking to the others.

TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)


	10. And So It Came To Be

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**10. And So It Came To Be**

It was all Sue had needed to hear. _Brittany is hurt._ Looking into Quinn's eyes when she'd said it, this wasn't a scraped knee or a sprain. So she urged the girl to lead the way. There was something about the urgency with which she had come for her, and as they walked she had to ask.

"You know, don't you?" she guessed. Quinn only briefly looked at her, still marching rapidly toward the auditorium.

"Yes, Coach," she opened the door and Sue walked in. She could see them all, huddled around the end of the stage, looking down, and she could feel every hair on her body give a prickling as it lifted on end.

"Brittany?" she made her way down the aisle. The other kids looked up at the sound of her voice. Will, who had been crouching, stood as she came closer.

"She's just starting to come around," he told her, but she hardly listened, getting down to where her girl could see her.

"Brittany, can you hear me?" she grasped her daughter's hand. She knew better than to move her, but seeing her like this was just shy of too much for her to bear. "You just say something now, anything, so I know you can hear me, alright?" The girl's eyes were just barely fluttering, but she could see her there, Sue could tell. Her lips pressed together, trying and failing to produce any sounds at first before she repeated the motion and the word came.

"M… Mom?" Sue closed her eyes; she'd never heard anything so good.

"I'm here. I'm right here. You're going to be fine, understand?" she spoke softly to her before looking up. "Where the hell are the paramedics?" The confused faces around her had snapped to when she barked.

"They're on their way," Kurt informed her. He'd barely gotten the words out that the auditorium doors opened and a man and woman rushed in, leading a gurney.

"Out of the way, please," the woman instructed, and those on the ground with Brittany stepped away. Quinn and Santana stuck together, while Sue remained as near as she could without getting in the way. As frightened as she was, she knew she would only make matters worse by being too close. "What's her name?" the woman asked.

"Brittany," Sue provided.

"You're the teacher?" the man asked, setting down his equipment, while the woman moved to check on Brittany. She didn't even think, didn't have to.

"No, that's him," she pointed back to Will. "I'm her mother. Please, is she going to be alright?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we know more, ma'am," the man told her, moving to assist his partner, while Sue felt someone take her arm. She turned to find Will at her side.

"What do you think you're doing?" he kept his voice low. She tugged her arm away.

"You know this is exactly the kind of thing that's the reason why I've tried and tried to get your little club banned from this school. You're lucky I don't sue your a…"

"I know you're worried about her, we all are, but now is not the time for lies, Sue."

"No, you're right. You're exactly right. It's the time for some truth, which is what I'm doing right now, and it better not be too late because I've had… I've had a very bad week," she pointed a finger at him, well on the verge of tears. Will looked properly stunned, looking at her.

"You're not kidding, are you? You're really her…"

"Don't look so shocked, Schuester, your hair will straighten, you'll look even more ridiculous than you already do."

Kurt had followed the whole scene unfolding before his eyes, still on the stage, and he could see it all now. He'd heard what Coach Sylvester said to the paramedics, they all had. He'd looked at her with Brittany, and he couldn't make out what she and Mr. Schue were going on about, but he could more or less figure it out by their facial expressions.

"Blonde and our age…" he mumbled to himself. Never in a million years would it have occurred to him, or Finn, that the answer could have been so close to them, but now that he was seeing it, he couldn't believe that they hadn't seen it. There were so many more questions raised by this now, but this was no time to ask them.

Brittany had grown more and more alert as she regained consciousness, now remembering where she was. Her previous slip in using 'the M word' had been forgotten in the haze. At the moment she was more concerned with pain and with the fear of what was happening to her.

"Am I dead?" she asked, and the woman gave her a smile.

"You're very much alive, I can promise you that. Just don't move, okay? We're going to get you on this gurney, and then we're going to take you to the hospital," she explained.

"Okay," Brittany breathed. "I'm nodding in my head," she informed the paramedic.

"Good, keep it that way."

They'd gotten her strapped in, while the rest of the Glee Club looked on, silent but concerned. "Right, just this way," the man motioned for Sue to follow them. She kept close to Brittany's side, and looking at her face, she closed her eyes for a moment.

"Wait, hold on," she told the pair before looking down at the cluster of kids staring on. "Santana, up here, now!" she called. The Cheerio was startled, but she did as told, while Sue looked to the paramedics. "This one's coming, too."

"There's not a whole lot of room in…" the woman started shaking her head.

"She won't take much space, trust me," Sue looked to the girl as she came up to them, no clue what was being discussed. "I don't have time to argue with you right now. She is coming with us and that is it."

TO BE CONTINUED (MONDAY)


	11. That They All Knew

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**11. That They All Knew**

The room was quiet. The only sounds came from outside, with machines, and intercom, footsteps… The most they could hope for in this room was the soft brushing of fabric against their seats, and Brittany's resting breath. She was sleeping now, stable but being kept for observation. The tension in the room had nothing to do with her.

Next to the bed on one side, her mother sat, eyes locked on the girl sitting on the other side, who was too busy looking at the sleeping blonde to notice. She'd always thought herself to have an eye for subterfuge, but this one… this one had completely slipped by her.

"So how long have you known?" she spoke, in all her authority as the girl's coach but, at the same time, simply as a mother. Santana looked back upon being spoken to, and she hesitated. "I let you come, didn't I?" Sue gave an extra push, and the girl let out a breath.

"A while."

"How long's a while?"

"Couple of years," Santana estimated, and Sue nodded to herself. "I never told anyone, I swear."

"How'd you find out?"

"She told me," she thought back to that day in the park; she'd thought it was a joke in the beginning. They were silent for a time, letting it all sink in. "Coach Sylvester, I was just wondering…"

"Why I let you come?" Sue guessed. Santana didn't reply, but she was waiting for her to say it. "You know, back in the auditorium, you were right there with her. Even when you had to move back for the paramedics, you stayed as close as reasonably allowed, but you moved because I was there. I think that's when I knew that you knew. But that wasn't it, because if it was then Quinn would be here, too." Santana hadn't known that Sue was aware for Quinn, but she still kept quiet. "Tell me, just how many times did you climb out my daughter's window?" She could practically feel the girl tense up, eyes turning away. "It's weird, when one piece falls into place, suddenly the others get easier to fit. And you know what I thought about when I saw you crouching in the auditorium, holding her hand? I saw her face, when I would get home and she would come up with that sort of dazed and nervous look in her eyes… like she was afraid I'd figure out you'd been there a minute ago."

"Coach… please…" Santana looked her in the eye again.

"I didn't let you come here so I could corner you, Santana. I don't appreciate the running around, and the lying, but then I'm the one who made her so good at it, right? So I let you come because I knew she'd want you here when she woke up, and I knew you'd need to be there, too. Am I wrong about that?"

"No. No, you're not wrong," she admitted, and Sue nodded slowly.

"And now that we have all our cards on the table, the next time you want to come to our house, for whatever reason… we have a door. Maybe you should give it a shot instead of the window."

"Right, I'll do that," Santana vowed. Sue could see tears in the corners of her eyes.

X

The rest of the club, along with Mr. Schuester, had made its way to the hospital behind the ambulance and now occupied part of the waiting room. As much as they all worried for Brittany, it was no surprise to anyone that the subject of conversation wasn't so much the accident as it was the discovery they had made. Some would go on claiming that they had known all along, that they'd had an inkling. Others would still side with disbelief, and others tried to think back, to clues they could have missed.

Kurt had gone to the vending machines, and Finn followed. After all this runaround over their so-called mystery, they had their answer, and they didn't know what to do about it.

"It was staring us right in the face," Kurt shook his head, feeding coins into the machine.

"But I thought we'd met her mother already," Finn frowned.

"I guess that's her stepmom," Kurt decided. "Still doesn't explain… She never said anything."

"Well would you want people knowing if that was your mom? Especially with how she's been to us?"

"But she's her mother," Kurt insisted. They'd wondered why this supposed daughter wasn't at Jean Sylvester's funeral, but she had been there after all. They'd asked themselves if she went to another school, but she was at McKinley, in Glee Club with them. "The more I think about it, they do sort of look alike."

"Please, would you two just let it go already?" They turned at the sound of Quinn's voice. "I had to come and make sure you weren't prowling near her room. I wasn't that far off, was I?"

"You lied to us," Kurt knew.

"Don't take it personally, I would have lied to anyone, at least about this," she shrugged.

"So it was a secret," Finn deduced.

"Yes," Quinn confirmed. "And right now only the Glee Club knows, so until we get to see what they want to do, would it be too much to ask that you keep it that way?" The boys had been properly silenced, but they both gave understanding nods.

"Hey." The three looked up. Santana came up to them, and the hint of redness in her eyes sent them in a panic. "Relax, she's going to be fine," she promised them, checking her eyes to see if there were any tears trying to make a break for it.

"Can we see her?" Kurt asked.

"Give them some time first," Santana shook her head. "Her father's on the way, the whole Pierce clan." Quinn came up to hug her, which Santana welcomed.

"You alright?"

"Better now," Santana told her. She wasn't going to go into what she and the Coach had talked about; she almost couldn't believe it herself.

"We should probably go talk to the others, tell them what you said about keeping it quiet," Kurt suggested, grabbing his purchases from the machine and looking to Finn.

"No, don't bother," Santana informed them. "Coach said to let it get out. No more hiding."

TO BE CONCLUDED (WEDNESDAY)


	12. But They Were Ready

_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

* * *

**"It's the Story of a Girl"**

**12. But They Were Ready**

Joe and the others would be here soon. Sue imagined that there would be some debate as to whether or not to pull Cat and Izzy from school to be with their sister, but that in the end Grandpa Joseph would leap to the rescue and go pick them up, so they could be there to make Brittany feel better. It used to be that she wasn't sure she'd want him, or Joe, or any of them in her life and in Brittany's. But now, whether or not she was willing to admit it, she wouldn't give them up for anything. She had been under the impression that having them around would mean that Brittany wouldn't want her as much as she used to. Why should she want a mean loner of a mother, living in a den of trophies, when she could have the perfect family, with the mother and father and adorable carbon copy sisters, the doting grandfather… Every time she would go to that house in the beginning it felt like she was walking into an orange juice commercial or a show from the 1950's.

But letting them had not meant losing Brittany, and once she'd stopped resisting the process, she had been able to see it. Once she wasn't… Well, once she wasn't scared about them, honestly, then she could see that they could bring goodness into Brittany's life without taking anything away from her relationship with her. She missed having her there, on a day to day basis, but even this was getting easier with time. Maybe it would be good, like practice for when she didn't live at home anymore. She wasn't looking forward to it, but it was an inevitability, so she needed to get used to it. She would need to tell them this in some way, without coming off like an absolute sap. She would do it, one day, just not that day.

It didn't matter how much the doctors had assured her that it had been more of a scare than anything to be truly concerned about, but she couldn't chase the images from her mind. She saw her there on the ground in the auditorium, strapped to the gurney, then in the ambulance, and now here, in bed, sleeping… It was a normal sort of fear, she knew, for a mother to worry about losing her child, but on that day… On that day she had come the closest to it, and in that moment she realized just what she could have lost, and it made her understand that some secrets were not supposed to last so long. They'd had a close call. Now things were going to change.

x

She couldn't remember what she had dreamed about, but what she did know was that it had felt alright, like it had been a good dream, and she would have been happy staying there.

But she had woken up, and it took some time for her to understand where she was. In the beginning, she thought she'd died and gone to heaven, until she figured out that what she was seeing was the white ceiling and not clouds.

Her eyes travelled down and she could see her mother, sitting in a chair and nearly dozed off. This was a hospital. Slowly, the events had come back to her, hazy at best, but enough for her to understand.

"Hey…" her mother sat back up, wide awake again when she saw she was awake. "How are you feeling?" she asked, getting up and approaching.

"Did I fall? I remember falling."

"Yes, you did. Everyone was very worried about you, Brittany," her mother told her, and she wondered.

"Santana?" She remembered her, too, vaguely.

"She's not far. She came with us on the ambulance."

"She did?" She was not so much surprised as she was realizing the facts. She could easily imagine her demanding to be allowed on to the ambulance.

"Brittany, I…"

"Why didn't you tell me? About grandma Doris?" she cut her off, and Sue paused.

"How'd you know ab… Never mind," Sue shook her head, bringing her chair closer so she could sit again and talk to her daughter. "I know I should have told you earlier, but, see, I needed… time," she explained.

"Time for what?"

"I thought that this whole thing, you and me, this secret, it would be harder to let it out, that there'd be complications. I think I was just scared," she admitted, looking down.

"I'm scared, too," Brittany told her after a beat, and Sue looked back up.

"You are?" she asked.

"This is how it's always been, and now it won't be, and I don't know how it'll be."

"Well, I think we're about to find out," Sue told her, and Brittany blinked.

"We are?" Sue reached out, taking her hand with a small smile.

"Your whole Glee Club, they already know, they found out in the auditorium," she revealed.

"They did?" Brittany sounded hopeful.

"Yes, and I told Santana to inform them all that they didn't need to keep it amongst themselves. We had a deal, you and me. It's time I held my end of the bargain. I wish it didn't have to happen this way, with you hurt like this, but sometimes you can't plan everything the way you wanted to. You are my daughter, and I have always, always been proud of you. It's time the world found out about it, don't you think?"

"Definitely," Brittany beamed. "Mom?" she spoke the word with all the confidence it deserved. "I love you." She was giving in to optimism, to the hope that things were going to be different for them from now on. Neither of them had any idea what to expect of the next little while, but they weren't going to go into it hanging on to negativity.

"I love you, too," Sue promised her with a smile. "I love you so much."

THE END


End file.
